Screenshot of a menu under GNOME: ROUND 2

A few days ago, I had written a post about the difficulties I had encountered in an attempt to capture an image of a menu under GNOME. A reader, “mysurface“, who, by the way, has written an article about taking screenshots, was 100% positive that, after issuing ImageMagick’s import command, it is still possible to switch between running applications with Alt-Tab and trigger menus with Alt, before using the mouse cursor to select the area that will be captured.

Well, I have tried all that but, as soon as I issue the import command, Alt-Tab or Alt+menu_trigger simply do not work. Mysurface also was kind enough to record a video in order to prove his words. You can watch it below:

Although YouTube’s video resolution is not suitable for this type of videos, it was enough to convince me that something does not function as expected on my machine. But, first of all, a few remarks about the video:

  1. After issuing the import command, the cursor does not turn into a cross. Usually, the cursor change indicates a change of mode. But I guess this is not of significant importance.
  2. This is definitely not the GNOME desktop environment. It is fluxbox (or I have been badly misled), but, sincerely, I have no problem at all with this…

I tried to take a screenshot of a menu under fluxbox. After issuing import, to my relief I could switch applications with Alt-Tab, but, when I tried to trigger a menu with Alt-F, for example, the menu, although triggered, it was not visible. How can anyone take a screenshot of an invisible menu?

I use Fedora Core 6 with almost the latest updates. I would be very glad to know what I am missing here…

Screenshot of a menu under GNOME: ROUND 2 by George Notaras is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
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2 responses on “Screenshot of a menu under GNOME: ROUND 2

  1. mysurface Permalink →

    I tested on gnome, like you said, the menu can’t be visible by alt F or something, if you run import first.

    If you open file menu first and import will fail to start. ( i do sleep 10;import test.png)

    Because, gnome have “feature” bind the mouse pointer to menu when u trigger it. But in fluxbox, it should be working. Did you logoff gnome and back to gdm and login to fluxbox session? or you just run fluxbox on top gnome?

    I am using ubuntu, so I am not sure about how FC6 ‘s fluxbox configuration is.

  2. George Notaras Post authorPermalink →

    Hi, I had logged off gnome and had logged in to a new fluxbox session… I’ll look into this at some later time. Thanks for your feedback on this. The following:

    sleep 10;import test.png

    … is interesting. :)